Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Shipwreck Blog: Mystery Solved?

Yesterday I posted about a shipwreck uncovered on the beach in Gulf Shores, Alabama, by winds and tides associated with Hurricane Ike. More information has been uncovered. (heh)

The ship has been uncovered in the past, at least as far back as the 1960s, according to Press-Register reports. A 1970 story in the newspaper quoted sources saying the vessel could be the blockade runner Montecello, run aground near the site during the Civil War.

A 2000 report by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said, however, that the vessel is most likely the schooner Rachel, which ran aground in 1933, said Mike Bailey, site curator at Fort Morgan. Bailey said the ship has been uncovered by storms in the past and has been buried again as the beach builds back.


So, the mystery is solved, or as much as it will be. And then the wreck will be covered again, and years or decades from now a storm will uncover it again and it will be briefly in the news again, and someone will do some research and the mystery will be solved once again. The wheel turns.

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